Although it is well known to provide rides on the crossed levers of various types for shears, which rides extend from the central cross pivot toward the handles to restrict spreading of the blades of the shears, such rides, so far as applicant knows, have never been provided on snips with separately pivoted handle levers to crossed blade levers.
It was believed that the relatively close configuration of the crossed blade levers on snips did not require rides nor was there sufficient space between the cross pivot and the handle pivot to include such rides. However, applicant has formed newly shaped crossed blade levers for snips whereby rides could be included, and unexpectedly found that the same size snips could cut through several times more layers of sheet material or thicknesses than before, and without distortion and spreading of the cutting blades axially of their cross pivot.